Adele selected an image: government troops with violet collar flashes arriving in twenty-place aircars on the outskirts of a village. They began to advance down the main street, still mounted on the vehicles which flew low, using ground effect for support.
A podium with a dozen chairs, many of them knocked over when the speakers hastily fled, had been erected in the town square. As the lead vehicle approached, a man in the clock tower opened fire with an impeller. Slugs punched through the aircar’s aluminum body and sparkled off the cobblestone pavement.
More guns fired from basement windows; the houses were frame with wooden shingles, but they had stone foundations. Troops on the vehicles returned fire wildly, occasionally dropping their fellows with ricochets. Civilians flung roof tiles to shatter on vehicles and the pavement.
The aircars turned and raced back the way they’d come, still hugging the ground. One of the buildings was beginning to burn. A civilian’s body lay in the street, and half the troops in the back of the last vehicle out were sprawled or writhing in smears of blood.
“There was a good deal of skirmishing like that,” Adele said. “Nunes was afraid to strike with his full strength because he couldn’t trust even the troops which hadn’t deserted. He called for assistance from the Alliance squadron that had just arrived at Tanais. Admiral Chastelaine, the Alliance commander, refused. He didn’t say why.”
“His ships must have been without port facilities for at least thirty days, perhaps twice that,” Daniel said. “I don’t imagine many squadron commanders under those circumstances would delay their refit because some wog was worried about riots.”
Adele’s lips tightened, but that was a precise description of Chastelaine’s probable attitude. That it was also very likely Daniel’s own attitude was inconsequential for the time being.
“Our friend Delos was continuing to gather support on the basis of his Cinnabar backing,” she resumed, “so he didn’t have any reason to push for a quick conclusion. Then Commodore Pettin arrived.”
The Winckelmann dropped majestically toward the bay around which Palia was built. A merchant ship was lifting at the same time. Many of the vessels which had been in the harbor at the start of the riots had already left.
“I am surprised that Nunes permitted our ships to land, though,” Daniel said. It must have been going through his mind as it was Adele’s that while the remainder of the squadron was settling peacefully onto Strymon, the Princess Cecile had been raked by the Tanais defenses.
“Observer Mariette contacted the commodore in orbit and demanded he land immediately to provide protection for Cinnabar property during the riots,” Adele said. “As the trouble appeared to be an internal Strymonian matter, the commodore brushed aside objections from the harbor controller and landed as requested.”
“Another officer might at least have left a destroyer in orbit,” Daniel mused. “I suppose he wanted all the available personnel to bolster his guard detachments.”
“Observer Mariette was very insistent,” Adele said, though part of her wondered why she was bothering to make excuses for the commodore. She wasn’t the one to judge the military reasons that had put the whole Cinnabar force on the surface, but it wouldn’t have taken information-gathering skills nearly as sophisticated as her own to warn Pettin that more was going on than the Observer realized.
“Then Vaughn would have claimed the squadron had arrived to support him,” Daniel said. “Which a reasonable Strymonian citizen would find easy to believe.”
He was stating his analysis rather than asking a question. Adele said, “The whole planet except for Palia and a few regions where Nunes had family connections declared for Delos. Palia is less pro-Pleyna than simply full of rioters looting anything they can. For the most part they haven’t attacked properties guarded by RCN detachments, but there’ve been sniping incidents every day since the squadron landed.”
Adele pursed her lips, then said, “Daniel, Nunes asked for help again when Pettin arrived, but Admiral Chastelaine still refused. Surely he isn’t going to simply ignore an RCN squadron?”
“Ah,” said Daniel. “No, he wouldn’t ignore us, but by the same token he won’t venture out of his fortified base before he’s certain his ships are fully repaired. Fully prepared.”